NEWS CENTER

ARLINGTON - A University of Texas at Arlington physics professor has won his second international Humboldt Prize for his research into the sun and solar-type stars.

Zdzislaw Musielak

Zdzislaw Musielak first received the Humboldt Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 1997 and has been notified that he has won again this year. The prize honors internationally renowned scientists and scholars. Musielak is being rewarded specifily for outstanding achievements in the field of astrophysics and resulted from his nominations by three German research institutions.

"The Humboldt Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in science and is given only to the top physicists in the world," said Alexander Weiss, professor and chairman of the UT Arlington Physics Department. "More than 20 previous winners of the Humboldt Prize have gone on to win the Noble Prize in Physics."

Musielak will study the physical processes responsible for heating the atmosphere of the sun and solar-type stars to temperatures above one million degrees. The research will enable astrophysicists to know more about the internal processes on the sun and also about its influence on Earth and life here.

Musielak's research will be done at the Kiepenheuer Institute in Freiburg, Germany, for three months this summer. He will collaborate with Institute researchers and others at the University of Freiburg and the University of Heidelberg.

In recognition of his successes, Musielak also received an additional Humboldt Follow-up Research Award in 2005. His achievements are representative of the research under way at UT Arlington, an institution of nearly 29,000 students committed to becoming a nationally recognized research university.